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Everybody in Italy cooks. They have a better knowledge of the kitchen - that's the place around which the whole of Italian society revolves.
I'm the king of napping. I can nap and I snore. Then I wake up, go to the toilet, wash my face, have a coffee and it's like a brand new day.
I don't do cookery shows to show off, I do it to encourage people. What's the point in going on TV and doing a recipe that no one can replicate?
People should always have a good bottle of extra virgin olive oil, a packet of pasta, tinned tomatoes and a good cheese somewhere in their fridge.
The only way you could replicate the way I grew up, with no access to supermarkets or petrol stations, would be to live on a farm in the middle of Wales.
I can cook in front of millions of people on TV, I don't care. But cooking for my own family really freaked me out. If they don't like it, they tell you.
I think it's a good thing that I eat well. Don't get me wrong, I go for fish and chips sometimes or the odd kebab, but you need more healthy food than bad.
Only the French people say French food is the finest cuisine in the world. If you ask anyone else, they will tell you the best food in the world is Italian.
I usually have a driver, or take a taxi. But I'm down to earth. I like to clean the kitchen, I iron and wash my wife's car! I just don't usually take trains.
Between my brain and my mouth there should be a filter where common sense kicks in before I deliver a word, but I think when God made me he forgot the filter.
I don't like lakes generally. It's a glorified pond, isn't it? I live by the sea, so for me I need to taste salt. I prefer the mystery, the majesty of the sea.
My mum and dad weren't wealthy people. We used to have pasta every day, meat once a week, fish was once every two weeks, presents only at Christmas and birthday.
Italian people are so proud to show off. A little bit too much, I have to say. Wherever you go, they prepare a buffet and they get offended if you don't try things.
Very few Italian restaurants in Britain do a good job. They're too scared to show you what real Italian food is like because they think you can't handle it, so they dilute it.
My father always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted, providing I was happy. He wanted me to go to school, but because I never wanted to, it was the only thing we argued about.
Italy is a hot country. Wherever you feel heat, your excitement and passion come out. We're hot-blooded, and where there's passion there's love, but also anger, hunger, excitement.
My grandfather was a chef and would make everything himself, including the wine, and had his own huge pizza oven. All the neighbors used to come over and use it to bake their bread.
Hearing other celebrities moaning about the bad things about being famous - there is no worst thing. If you don't want to be famous, just stop it and go and be a doctor or a teacher.
There is no way on Earth I'm going to get a call from 'Bake Off!' It is a British institution. People sit down to watch it with a cup of tea. The last thing they want is Gino D'Acampo!
Generally, Italians just eat better. They're not doing that thing where they're eating two or three hundred grams of pasta. They're never eating a carbonara sauce with a tub of cream in it.
I'm very lucky because I can say to my wife, 'Is there any chance we can have shepherd's pie or this or that tonight,' and she does it very well - especially as I don't always want to cook!
I thought, 'This is not going to drag me down, this is going to make me a better man.' So I came out of prison a man with a plan, determined to set up a business importing Italian ingredients.
My wife often goes out with male friends for dinner and I go out with female friends. We have different holidays. We're together six months of the year and when we're together, we're together.
If I'm feeling nostalgic, the first thing I do is open a packet of spaghetti, olive oil in a pan, garlic, a little bit of chili, a sprinkle of fresh parsley, and that's it. It reminds me of my mum.
When I was eight years old, my mum and dad took me skiing in Valle d'Aosta in northern Italy. I'm not usually a huge fan of snow or cold places, but I loved the fact that we were together as a family.
My only ambition was to have a restaurant and bring real Italian food to this country. Television was never even part of my idea, so I can say without hesitation that I am living someone else's dream.
My kids are not allowed to be fussy eaters. The problem with fussy children is their stupid parents. I run a family kitchen and in my house we don't have options. I never had options, why should they?
I always remember my mum and dad arguing a lot and one main reason was lack of money. I realized very young that I always wanted to make money so I'd never have the same arguments like my mum and dad.
A lot of people believe Italian food is tasty because there are a lot of ingredients. But they don't understand that the reason why it's tasty is because there are less ingredients than in any other cuisine.
Nowadays, everyone writes a cookbook. Models, singers, whatever, everybody thinks that they can do it and cook on TV. What they don't understand is that if you want to do it well, you need to put in the hours.
For many, the gastronomic heart of Italy is the Emilia-Romagna region. Its capital is Bologna, which is often overlooked by tourists but has a beautiful historic centre and a lively yet chilled-out atmosphere.
My favorite breakfast that is nutritious and very quick to do is eggs. Of course not everyday because that's not good for you, but I like to have eggs in the morning at least three times a week as it gives me a lot of energy.
My grandfather used to be a chef and I remember going to his restaurant to peel potatoes and clean his floor. He used to go out and kiss all the girls in the restaurant and I thought 'oh this is good... one day I want to be like him.'
My mother would never say anything I cooked for her was great. She was always a 'Yeah, but' person. When she tasted my food, I used to say to her 'Don't tell me too straight, lie to me!' She couldn't even understand why I was on television.
We don't do spaghetti and Bolognese sauce together in Italy. That is technically wrong because when you lift up the spaghetti the sauce will just run down. The way to do it is to use pasta like fettuccine or tagliatelle so the sauce sticks to it.
I think if you're a good person and you show that you learned from all the mistakes that you made you move on with your life. Everybody will accept that. Only an idiot will not accept that or keep reminding you of it and keep pointing that finger.
I am still around too many Italian people to start speaking like a guy from London. I live in Italy for six months of the year, all the people in my restaurants are Italian and it means that when I speak, it is always with an Italian accent in my head.
The problem that people have is that they eat too large portion sizes. Italians have been eating pasta for hundreds and hundreds of years, and we've never been an obese nation. We do the pasta, the pizza, all the cheeses, but it all has to do with how much you eat.
Rome is the capital of Europe; it's as simple as that. You need to see what the Romans did 2,000 years ago. They were so advanced compared to the rest of the world. They showed us how to make roads, toilet seats, how to do irrigation, and more. When you see the Colosseum you won't believe it was built so long ago.